Joined: October 20th, 2004, 4:16 pmPosts: 10066Location: Where ever I'm at now

Re: Mind Trick.

I was able to read it, and what it proves is that when we read, we don't really read letters, but instead use cognitive skills for collections of letters, or symbols that are similar to those letters, to recogize the entire word.

Most people with decent reading skills shouldn't have a problem with it.

Which is why it puzzles me why I was able to read it so handily...

_________________I will not put on blinders when it comes to our QBs performances.

_________________2 Chronicles 10:14, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

I was able to read it, and what it proves is that when we read, we don't really read letters, but instead use cognitive skills for collections of letters, or symbols that are similar to those letters, to recogize the entire word.

I used to work as a reading specialist, and this is partially right. There is a processor this information goes through first, the orthographic processor, where the mind actually does read/interpret every individual letter/symbol, but as a part of this processor, the trained mind reacts to letters that it knows attract or repel one another--the collections that fit or don't fit (digraphs, blends, phonemes, then syllables, etc.). For example, the letters in the combination "bl" attract one another into a blended sound, while the letters in a "tg" combination would likely repel one another. From there the information passes through semantic and then contextual processors, which help us determine general and then specific meaning (you have a general knowledge for the meaning of the word "grandmother," and then you attach that meaning to your interpretation of that word [your grandmother] and/or the meaning contextualized by the text you're reading). The combination of these three is what helps us to make sense of a code like this, which has enough similarities to common words as to make it comprehensible.

There is another processor, the phonological processor, which is the voice we hear in our minds when reading. This is located in another part of the brain, and it is the fact that this processor is located elsewhere, and that we do read each letter we see however fast (very), that allows for speed reading.

Kind of dry stuff, but if anyone finds it interesting, check out a book called Learning to Read by Marilyn Jagr Adams.